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Magma is molten rock that is deep underground.
Click on image for full size Courtesy of Boise National Forest

Magma

Pretend that you are an explorer traveling to the center of the Earth. You would find that the deeper you travel, the hotter it gets! Beneath the crust, in the mantle layer, it is hot enough that rock can melt. When rock melts and turns into a liquid, we call it "molten". The molten rock is called magma. Magma is so hot that it glows bright white. You would need sunglasses to look at it!

If magma flows into an area underground that is less hot, it cools, becomes yellow, and then red. As it cools slowly, minerals form crystals making a plutonic rock like granite.

If magma finds a crack in the Earth and comes to the surface, it is called lava!

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TES XXVI, 3 fall 2010
The Fall 2010 issue of The Earth Scientist, focuses on rocks and minerals, including articles on minerals and mining, the use of minerals in society, and rare earth minerals, and includes 3 posters!

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